


One Thousand Cranes

by SaintTachibana



Category: Free!
Genre: Fantasy, Gen, Mysticism, Sad, implied one-sided, not wow
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-28
Updated: 2014-09-28
Packaged: 2018-02-19 01:49:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2369960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaintTachibana/pseuds/SaintTachibana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sousuke's shoulder mysteriously heals. Isn' t it some strange coincidence that Makoto suddenly develops a shoulder injury of his own?</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Thousand Cranes

 

_“…saw our relay last year. After watching us, Yamazaki found his dream. And he learned what it means to swim with friends. He also gained a strong desire to swim the best possible relay on the best possible team. Even if it meant wrecking his shoulder.”_

_“So I want us to respond to his wish with all we’ve got.”_

 

* * *

 

 

After the intense relay, and the emotional roller coaster that had come along with it, Sousuke had quietly retreated into the lockers in order to tend to his now-ruined shoulder. The inflammation was a severe reminder that he could never go on relays with Rin and the others again.

That was okay with him. He had the memories of this last race, of how Rin and the others were happy even though they had lost by a few milliseconds due to his foul up. A lost race, but it was a race with everyone.

The silent hiss of the COOL Air SalonPas was interrupted when footsteps made themselves heard in the locker room, and even though everyone had noticed the injury by now, Sousuke was still uncomfortable having anyone stare at the bruised, strawberry color of his injured joint.

Olive green hair peeked from the corner, and the familiar face of the Iwatobi swim captain came to view. The surprise on his face, Sousuke thought, meant that Tachibana didn’t expect him to be there.

“Yamazaki-kun…” Tachibana’s voice was soft, a bit hesitant. Probably unsure whether to feel pity for him or wondering if he was going to set off a fuse in Sousuke. Figures. Sousuke thought that he had only been either indifferent or volatile around the times when Tachibana was around.

“Tachibana.” Sousuke returned the greeting with a curt reply. He didn’t move from his seat on the bench like what he did with Nitori earlier. He had nothing left to hide, and it wasn’t like Tachibana was actively searching for him.

“I…I was actually looking for you.”

Well, it apparently was like that. And since the kindly captain was actively searching for him, then it probably meant…

“Is your shoulder alright?”

Ah, there it was.

“No, it’s not.” Sousuke replied with a biting tone instinctively, almost regretting the flinch on the other person. “Sorry. I just don’t feel comfortable talking about it. It looks hideous, and I get enough concern from Rin already.”

Sousuke was already expecting Tachibana to just nod and walk away, leave him a well-wish if it was a good day even if he was acting like a jerk on instinct. Tachibana was kind, very kind. Even Rin could vouch for him.

But far from leaving him alone, Makoto took a seat beside him, near his injured shoulder. Sousuke turned to pointedly stare at him, but found his effort rebuffed when Makoto returned it with his brilliantly verdant eyes.

“Rin told me that you wanted to swim again.” His gaze didn’t stray from Sousuke’s eyes, focused as if he was finding Sousuke’s resolution.

“Did he?” Sousuke replied, a bit wary on how Rin easily divulged things that they talked about earlier. “But it’s too late for that.”

Makoto was silent, almost as if considering the words Sousuke had said very carefully.

“…and if you could swim again, you won’t regret it, right?”

Sousuke actually frowned, wondering how a question like this sounded so wrong to his ears. It was like a question that involved jumping off a point of no return.

“Why would I?”

After he spoke those three words, it was like the tension in the air grew thicker than ever, almost as if it was suffocating Sousuke. _There was something in the air that was pushing him down._

He was thoroughly distracted by the sudden shift in the atmosphere that he hadn’t noticed Makoto’s fingers slowly pulling his jacket down to reveal his swollen shoulder. Cool fingers that were ghosting on top of heated, red skin jolted Sousuke back to reality.

“Ah. This type of injury will get better.” Makoto’s touches were gentle, prodding softly on his throbbing flesh. “I’ve seen this before.”

“Wha-“ Sousuke was turning a furious shade of crimson, anger replacing paranoia in an instant. “Are you on drugs or something, Tachibana? This shoulder is done! I wrecked it through overtraining and repeated injury! It’s not just something that will recover easily because I finally –“

Makoto regarded Sousuke at that moment, waiting for what he was going to say.

“…because I finally enjoyed swimming with everyone.” Sousuke looked crestfallen, looking away in order to hide his regretful face.

A dark smile flitted through Makoto’s lips, disappearing just as fast as it appeared.

“Maa, maa.” Makoto carefully patted him on the back. “I don’t know why Rin still let you swim even though your injury was very visible. But he trusted you to carry on with the relay, ne?”

“Yeah. He did.”

“It’s a hard thing to trust someone, especially to do something dangerous for your sake.” Makoto whispered. “But if Rin trusted you, shouldn’t you also trust yourself? Trust yourself to get better, Yamazaki-kun.”

Sousuke looked exasperated at that point, almost ready to chastise Makoto about what medical science had to say about injuries to this degree. But Makoto had already chosen to do a tactical retreat at that point, waving goodbye with that irritating, sweet smile on his face, disappearing in the same locker room corner that he first appeared from.

He huffed, unbelieving that Tachibana had gotten him worked up. It was like there was a hidden sadistic streak in that gentle giant that no one knew was there. Probably had it there, and no one did know he had one.

Sousuke was alone in the room once more, contemplating what to do with a future that had no swimming in it.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

After the excitement with Nationals, the hype slowly died down for everyone. Rin had taken up his Australian coach’s offer of training and swimming in Australia after graduation. Deliberation with the entire Samezuka team had made Nitori the new swimming captain of the Samezuka swimming club; much to the younger Mikoshiba’s delight.

On the Iwatobi side, the club had thankfully gotten a sizable amount of new recruits. Since Haruka and Makoto was leaving for Tokyo, there were concerns as to whether the club can still perform as well as they did in the past. Rei became the new captain (though he was assured it was because he was the most suited for the job, not because Nagisa would probably run it to the ground).

Sousuke had little to do now, since swimming was no longer an option for him and college didn’t seem all that attractive to him. His dad’s business would always be open for him, having reconciled with his father a few years back.

His last day in the Samezuka dorm was spent tailing Rin around, watching him settle all swimming club business and making calls to various people, both local and abroad.

The only unsettling thing that was happening was Tachibana actually visiting Samezuka for _him._

“You’re not looking for Rin?” Sousuke tilted a fine eyebrow. “You sure?”

Tachibana made an amused chuckle, cringing a bit before massaging his left shoulder. The action was not lost on Sousuke, who eyed it rather critically.

“It’s fine. I just pulled a muscle on finals.” Makoto dispelled his curiosity. “So, is your shoulder still hurting? It should have healed by now. Last time was a long time ago.”

Sousuke had shrugged, feeling a bit numb from the excited atmosphere in the dorms. “It’s not hurting anymore. I haven’t been swimming hard enough to strain my shoulder.”

Tachibana continued nodding. “It’s good to know then, Yamazaki-kun. I’m usually right about these things. You should get a certificate from a physical therapist so you can go back to swimming competitively again. You’ll have a lot of catching up to do.”

He frowned at the other person’s confidence and lack of worry. “You’re awfully chipper about this, Tachibana.”

Makoto shrugged, still smiling. “We can only look at the brighter side of things Yamazaki-kun.”

Sousuke shrugged, not being able to reply anything equally natured to what Makoto had said.

“Well, goodbye, Yamazaki-kun.” Makoto bowed slightly. “I hope the next time I see you is on television.”

 

With one last glance at him, Makoto turned and walked away.

“A-ah.” Sousuke felt awkward, being given well-wishes. He hadn’t had given enough effort to be nice or friendly with the other members of the Iwatobi Swimming Club (even with all the joint practices during the past year) and yet…

Come to think of it, maybe he did need to visit his physical therapist. Just so he can put the final nail on the coffin that was his shoulder.

 

* * *

 

 

“I don’t know what type of therapy you’ve been getting since you last visited Yamazaki-san, but please do keep up with it.”

Sousuke felt something well up inside him, upon hearing the rather surprised doctor’s diagnosis of his shoulder.

He had gotten an MRI scan on recommendation. The doctor had looked over his past record and had deemed it useless because he hadn’t gotten any surgery for it at all. But Sousuke just wanted to know since he suddenly seemed ‘fine’ during the past few weeks.

Sousuke had not felt any pain from the painful arc test, causing the doctor to raise his eyebrow.

Now, they were there in his room, looking over the scans of his shoulder. The doctor marveled at the improvement of the tendons’ condition.

“Does this mean I can swim again? Professionally?” He wanted to hear it.

“Within a few weeks, and with your physical therapist’s recommendation, we can give you a green signal to pursue it. Your shoulder’s healing well, almost too well if I might add. Strange, I’ve never encountered a case like this where the injury recovered on its own without intervention.”

Sousuke would have almost jumped for joy, but he settled for a fist pump and a wide grin.

_I can catch up with Rin!_

 

* * *

 

 

He worked hard and earnestly, in order to regain the title of being one of the Top Ten Butterfly Swimmers of the country. And as a way to prevent a repetition of what happened in the past, he had decided to take a degree on Sports Medicine both to become aware of his body, as well as a fallback plan should he retire from swimming. Training was rigorous but on the days that he couldn’t come to class, he took online courses to compensate and didn’t compromise on anything that he could learn.

The university he went to was Keio University, the same one where Makoto was taking up a degree in Education and Sports.

“We invited him to a goukon” said colleague of Tachibana was whining to him “but he looked at us like we were stupid and walked away without saying anything.”

“Sousuke is serious about his future.” Makoto chided him, earning another bout of whining. “It’s like your teasing him if you invite him to something that’s unrelated.”

“I thought you guys came from the same hometown?”

“His last year of high school.”

“Weird how you aren’t friends with him right now.” Said colleague quietly observed Sousuke disappearing as he turned around the corner. “Guy looks like he has no friends here.”

Makoto was silent for a few seconds, smiling softly.

“He doesn’t see me. At least not anymore.” He sighed, readjusting the books he was carrying. “Sousuke’s the type to flourish if left alone.”

“Oh give me that!” Colleague took the books from him. “Honestly, don’t strain your shoulder. You missed a lot of classes already because of it. At least get one of us to help you with carrying and lifting things.”

Makoto chuckled, but thanked him all the same. Everyone had been worried for him and his shoulder, all his colleagues.

“Sorry. If only I had been more careful when I was younger…I wouldn’t have injured my shoulder like this.”

 

* * *

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think. I'm thinking of it ending it here as a one-shot, but I'm not sure if the story's resolved or not already.


End file.
